Blogger Dr. Marcella Collins, Conference planner

Early Diagnostics Of A Colorectal Cancer. Part 1 of 3

Early Diagnostics Of A Colorectal Cancer – Part 1 of 3

Early Diagnostics Of A Colorectal Cancer. Researchers in South Korea deliver they’ve developed a blood test that spots genetic changes that signal the propinquity of colon cancer, April 2013. The test accurately spotted 87 percent of colon cancers across all cancer stages, and also correctly identified 95 percent of patients who were cancer-free, the researchers said. Colon cancer remains the duplicate leading cancer killer in the United States, after lung cancer. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 137000 Americans were diagnosed with the plague in 2009; 40 percent of people diagnosed will die from the disease.

Right now, invasive colonoscopy remains the “gold standard” for spotting cancer early, although fecal privy blood testing (using stool samples) also is used. What’s needed is a highly accurate but noninvasive testing method, experts say. The new blood examination looks at the “methylation” of genes, a biochemical process that is key to how genes are expressed and function. Investigators from Genomictree Inc and Yonsei University College of Medicine in Seoul said they spotted a set of genes with patterns of methylation that seems to be delineated to tissues from colon cancer tumors.

Changes in one gene in particular, called SDC2, seemed especially tied to colon cancer growth and spread. As reported in the July 2013 number of the Journal of Molecular Diagnostics, the team tested the gene-based screen in tissues taken from 133 colon cancer patients. As expected, tissues captivated from colon cancer tumors in these patients showed the characteristic gene changes, while samples taken from adjacent healthy tissues did not.